A former Royal Marine has had his life turned around with help from the Lympstone-based Royal Marines Charity.  

Tom Cartwright, 38, served for 15 years as a bugler in the HM Band of the Royal Marines. He ended up in rehabilitation in 2021 having suffered a blood clot in his shoulder and pulmonary embolism. Six months later, he was medically discharged. 

Mid-pandemic, he left the Royal Marines and is now the self-employed owner of Belvoir! Exmouth estate and letting agents. He said: “The Royal Marines Charity threw me a real lifeline by helping me get the tools I needed to forge a new way forward for myself and my family.” 

“In the midst of a desperate search for a new job, our family computer broke down and I had to rely on my mobile phone to make applications. So, I was grateful when the Charity helped me purchase a laptop so I could properly write my CV and apply for roles.”  

Having taken a job as a general manager at a local hotel, he quickly discovered he had a talent for business. 

 “During the second lockdown, an independent estate and lettings agency came up for sale in Exmouth. So I decided to go-it-alone and started talks with a franchise to help me in buying the business. Again, the laptop was an essential piece of equipment for me - meetings were still all online and it also enabled me to draw up a professional business plan and apply for business loans.” 

The business is now celebrating its first anniversary in October and has won the Belvoir Group’s Newcomer of the Year award. 

Last year, the Charity supported over 22,000 people. That’s equivalent to the entire population of a small town such as Tiverton or Falmouth. Of these, almost 2,700 were in acute need, a similar number to those living in Newton Poppleford and Exton combined. 

The Royal Marines Charity has helped Tom travel the globe and attend events like Prince Philip’s funeral, the 2012 Olympics and Rugby World Cup, serving in Afghanistan on Herrick 14 as an ambulance driver and playing the Last Post at the Festival of Remembrance in the Royal Albert Hall in 2013 and 2014, to firmly setting down ‘civvie street’ roots in East Devon.